Audit report uncovers N3.3tr fraud in MDAs

NNPC fails to remit N3.2tr to Federation Account in 2014 Cartel creating ghost workers easily hack into govt payroll system, says Auditor-General
Cartel creating ghost workers easily hack into govt payroll system, says Auditor-General
N36.4b released to Office of NSA for rehabilitation of dams instead of Water Ministry  N2.89b spent on purchase of hand sanitizers for public schools to tackle Ebola
NASS management paid out N9.5b without raising payment vouchers Audit trail on IPPIS not enabled, fraudulent transactions cannot be traced to particular users
Audit trail on IPPIS not enabled, fraudulent transactions cannot be traced to particular users
N2.89b spent on purchase of hand sanitizers for public schools to tackle Ebola
NASS management paid out N9.5b without raising payment vouchers
Audit trail on IPPIS not enabled, fraudulent transactions cannot be traced to particular users

A fraud running into N3.3 trillion has been uncovered at the instance Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the 2014 fiscal year, according to the 2014 Annual Audit Report.

ed to the National Assembly by the Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura, on Monday, just as alleged that some staff of the software developers of the Integrate Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) of the government are sometimes the creators of ghost workers within the civil service. The Audit Report revealed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) did not remit the sum of N3,234,577,666,791.35 to the Federation Account Allocation Committee in 2014.

The report stated that the sum of $235,685,861 being proceeds from sales of gas was transferred to an undisclosed Escrow Account rather than being deposited the federation account. The report alleged that relevant documents were not made available to the office of the Auditor – General for verification It added that N36,432,423,968.73 was released to the Office of the National Security Adviser for the rehabilitation and construction of dams instead of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources It added that N2,894,531250.00 was spent for the procurement of hand sanitizers for schools and critical public places, to tackle the Ebola epidemic. The report adds, “The sum of N31, 324,952,239.87 was payment of subsidy on fertilizer and youth employment in agricultural programmes. “The sum of N2, 395,851,978.00 was payment for group Life Assurance Premium for Armed Forces budget in 2013, but not backed. The sum of N500, 000,000 was made as payment for agricultural programmes. “These were variances with the purpose of the fund. No evidence of these lines of expenditure in the 2014 Appropriation Act.”

The report added that the management of the National Assembly, headed by the Clerk, made payments of N9,514,568,222.62, without raising payment vouchers. The report noted that the management of the National Assembly violated the nation’s financial regulation. In the same period under review, the report noted that personal advances were granted to 112 staff of the National Assembly from recurrent votes and 50 members of staff from general service votes from July to December, 2014 for various purposes, totaling N1,162, 009,305.00. In the audit report, the AGF revealed how the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington DC, United States of America, realised Internally Generated Revenue of $3,705,428.00 between 2012 and March 2015, but expended the whole amount as sundry expenses. Meanwhile, on the issue of ghost workers, the Auditor-General for the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura said unless those involved were checkmated, there may be no end to ghost workers syndrome with the government’s pay roll system.

Ukura stated this, while presenting the 2014 Annual Audit Report to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikashuwa. He told the Clerk that some unidentified staff of software company, Soft Alliance Limited have unhindered access to the data base and hence, have been altering live data on the government payroll for their selfish motives. He said the password controls for access to IPPIS are not adequate because the database can be accessed remotely through the Internet. According to him, the password for accessing the IPPIS database does not expire after 90 days, as such according to him has enabled retired government officers to use their password after leaving office.

He expressed concern that some user names and passwords were shared by several users and that most of them used words like ‘consultant’ or ‘technical’ with no restriction on the number of sign-in attempts. The Auditor General lamented that his office discovered that about N330m was paid to 300,000 individuals without following approved salary scale while double payments of about N30m was paid within three months.

He added that the imperfections in the IPPIS system had made the country to lose another huge sum of money with the payment of N12m each to 40 members of staff who were not included in the payroll of the relevant MDAs. He said 152 officers on IPPIS did not have personnel files in their MDAs while N193m paid to unidentified persons. According to him, “The audit trail for the IPPIS has not been enabled and that as a result, it is not always possible to trace which user made particular inputs or changes. For example, fraudulent transactions cannot be traced to a particular user.

“Application controls have not been activated in IPPIS to ensure that gross pay is input from salary and allowance tables, rather than the actual amounts being input directly. “Completeness checks are not activated to ensure that all necessary data, like the bank account number, grade level, and job title, have been entered. “Reasonableness checks not activated so that an officer’s age less than 18 years can be still paid while user profiles are not adequately restricted, hence an officer in one MDA can amend the payroll data for other MDA. “The ability to create new users on the system is not adequately protected and restricted to a few ‘super users’”